Notes and Images for “Beowulf” lines 86-193

Middle Ages Series Beowulf and Other Old English Poems- Beowulf Lines 86-193

Then the monster who lived in shadows,

• Note:
  • monster: the image above of the monster was printed in a 1970’s translation of the Old English version: the drawing is dark and scribbled emphasizing another key word in this line: shadow

The dark’s demon, suffered pain

• Notes:
  • The use of the word demon evokes images of Christianity
    • the demon is dark and suffering
    • the shadow a reflection of hell

When he heard the harp’s sweet songs,

• Notes:
  • This line creates images of stark contrast to the suffering of the demon. The harp is an instrument associated with heaven and heavenly beings.
  • The demon suffers because of the sound of the song, feelings of jealousy and rage

The poet’s music in the great hall of joy.

• Notes:
  • The poet is human the monster is not; the poet lives in the hall of joy, the demon suffers in the shadows of hell
  • The poet plays music which could parallel the monster’s suffering: his song of sorrow (mimesis of Old English)

The shaper sang the world’s creation,

• Notes:
  • Interesting that the poet is referred to as the shaper and then God is referred to as the shaper- both powerful and influential creators
  • This marks the beginning of the genre on the story of creation
    • The next seven line provide a very brief and summarized retelling of the biblical story of creation as told in Genesis

The origin of me, God’s broad grandeur

In sun-bright fields surrounding waters.

That greater Shaper set sun and moon

As land-lights and adorned all earth

With leaves and limbs, created each

Green gift, each living thing,

Each waling wonder of this bright world.

The listening warriors lived in the hall,

•  Notes:
  • The tradition of the warriors is imitated here. As mentioned in other Old English pieces, the mead halls were places of reunion and human interaction.
    • “The Seafarer” especially emphasizes this tradition when the narrator expresses his exile and loneliness through the description of the the companionship and protection found within the mead hall.
      • The monster, the demon, is related to the notion of exile and longing for companionship (his feelings are similar to those of the narrator of the poem, except he cannot find consolation in God, as he is a creature of the shadows)

Surrounded by the joy until a certain creature

Began to commit crimes. A hell-fiend,

• Notes:
  • The distinction between the nature of  human and monster is made.
  • The monster enacts crimes through his rage and jealousy. He makes the warriors suffer (ruining their “heaven”) just as he suffers  (in his “hell”).
    • Monster’s desire to ruin the happiness of the men

A grim hall-guest called Grendel,

 

Moor-stalker, wasteland walker,

 

Demon of the fens, he dwelled in marshes,

In monstrous lairs, unhappy, unhoused,

• Notes:
  • The creature’s desire to no longer be an outcast turns into an act of desperation in which he commits crimes, trying to find consolation

After God the Creator had rightly condemned

• Notes:
  • The next six line provide a very brief and summarized retelling of the biblical genre of the first murder as told in Genesis
  • Grendel is a descendant of Cain (which explains his behavior and justifies his actions)
  • God created the humans and the people but he also created the “race of Cain” (beings marked for their distinct differences)

The race of Cain, that murdering kin,

• Notes:
  • As demonstrated in earlier lines of the poem, genealogy is not only important, but it is crucial in determining status
    • Grendel is a beast by nature because he descends from the evil of Cain
      • Grendel’s jealousy towards the humans in the hall stems from his nature, his relationship to Cain who envied his brother
      • Cain murdered Abel because of his jealousy and envy, in the same manner that Grendel commits the crimes

When the Lord of life took vengeance

On Abel’s bane, that slaughtering son.

No one found joy in that long feud,

That banishment for family–killing.

• Notes:
  • God’s punishment for Cain is the reason that Grendel is an outcast
    • Grendel’s ancestry determined the course of his life (misery, jealousy, loneliness, exclusion etc.)
      • Emphasis on the significance of genealogical roots
  • The mark God puts on Cain’s forehead is reminiscent of another famous mark in the bible, the “Mark of the Beast”– the connection is the notion of the evil beast
    •  Grendel, the beast, is marked by his ancestry
    • A mark, a curse that protects him from death
  • Banishment in the same sense that Lucifer was banished by God, and Adam and Eve were vanished from Eden

Out of Cain’s crime what woke was evil,

A brutal borning of orcs and elves,

• Notes:
  • Overlapping of the Christian and Pagan concepts
    • A reflection of the clashing and paralleling traditions during the Middle Ages

Gibbering giants, the living and dead,

• Notes:
  • This alludes to the passage in Genesis which addresses the fallen angles who slept with humans and created the so called Nephilim people— giants

Who fought God, finding a hard reward.

In black night came the hall-marauder,

• Note:
  • The fear of the dark and the darkness; the creatures that lurk and the misery that awaits

To see how the beer-drinkers soundly slept,

A feast of dreamers who’d forgotten sorrow—

• Note:
  • Dreams were believed to be a moment in which the body and soul separated. Dreams permitted the person to see things from above in a different perspective

They locked out their misery, this mess of men.

Unwhole, unholy, the monster came,

• Note:
  • The unholiness of the creature is further emphasized. The distinction between Grendel and the people he attacks.

Grim and greedy, ready, ravenous—

A stalking mouth, he quickly seized

• Note:
  • Cannibalism- highlights the frailty of the human body, the facility to end a life- follows the idea of the temporary life- “life is fleeting”

Thirty thanes, hauled them home,

• Note:
  • The number thirty has been associated with death and mourning (see hyperlink) which is applicable to this moment. The King will mourn the death of his people at the hands of Grendel.

His precious plunder, his proud slaughter—

King of the lair, exulting in dinner.

A dark cry woke before dawn,

A wail of Danes long after dinner,

Grendel’s bloodbath their breakfast greeting,

• Note:
  • The mentioning of the meals makes indirect reference to the mead-hall and how monstrous actions have fouled and destroyed a highly regarded tradition

His war-craft the morning’s misery.

• Notes:
  • Grendel’s power comes from bringing pain to others
  • The word choice in this line emphasizes war and violence
    • the conquering and invasion of land that prevailed within the time period

The glorious king had cold joy,

Suffered for his thanes, drank sorrow,

• Notes:
  • Role reversal: Now it is the humans, the Danes, with the sorrow and pain.
  • The rivalry between human and monster prevalent throughout the entire poem

When he saw the bloody tracks

Of the grim guest the ravenous ghost.

That strife was too strong, that loathing too long—

He even invited himself back the next night

For more murders and no mourning!

He was bent on vengeance, savage in sin.

• Note:
  • Grendel’s retribution is the vision of the violent warrior
  • Grendel’s violence is not unjustified.
    • He has a motive
    • He is a victim
      • The means of Grendel’s vengeance: savage behavior

Then it was easy to find a hero who sought

A hall removed from the ravenous beast,

A separate bed, once the blood feud was known,

• Notes:
  • The blood feud is the concept of good versus evil.
    • The sleeping warriors, the heroes
    • The violent monster, the beast

The grim crime of murderous hall-thane.

Only those who left the hall escaped the hate!

So Grendel ruled the greatest of halls,

Sabotaged the right, a monster unmatched

• Notes:
  • Grendel’s crimes are truly despised because of the secrecy and slyness though which he kills the Danes
  • He hides in the shadows and kills in the dark of the night
    • Grendel’s acts are private affairs

Against many mean, till the meadhall

Stood empty, unguarded, an idle house—

Twelve winters long, the time of grief

• Note:
  • The number 12 appears not only in the Bible, but also in traditions
    • 12 months in a year
    • 12 Apostles
    • 12 Tribes of Israel
    • Jesus was 12 years old when he was found in the temple

That Hrothgar became king of nothing,

Ruler of agony, lord of woe.

• Notes:
  • There is no future only past and present
    • Being & Becoming

Then the saper’s song to sons of men

• Notes:
  • Scop- poets (invent a world), storytellers (oral traditions)
  • Sorrow song- person singing of passion or sorrow (Grendel’s passion in killing, the men’s sorrow in dying)

Was blood feud and baleful sorrow,

• Note:
  • Further emphasis on blood highlights the significance and the differences

Grendel’s stalking and Hrothgar’s suffering:

• Note:
  • Through Grendel’s behavior he has taken everything from the men. It is as if he is being redeemed

His night hatred was no secret—

His plan was to devour peace with the Danes.

He offered no payment for past crimes,

No gold for his gnawing. No hall-counselor

• Note:
  • Grendel does not pay for his crimes, he offers no gold
    • alludes to the accepted tradition that one could pay to kill

Hoped to see shame’s wergild in that claw.

That hall-bane, fierce and relentless fighter,

That death-shadow, moved against men.

Out of the mist, up from the moors,

He ambushed and ate, drank and devoured

• Note:
  • Grendel is now the one who feasts within the walls of the mead-hall

Both young and old, both able and feeble.

• Note:
  • Death does not discriminate
    • Related to the concept of wyrd: the idea of fate (and the individual becoming)
      • death will come and there is nothing anyone can do

He shaped the fens into endless night.

No one knows where the hell-shades walk.

The enemy of men, that lone horror,

Brought endless shame home to the hall,

A bed of terror to bright Heorot,

• Note:
  • Good versus evil; light versus dark; heaven versus hell; God versus the Devil

A night-demon in the dark hall,

But he was barred from the king’s throne,

Kept from the gift-seat and God’s love,

• Notes:
  • Hell is the absence of God’s love (2 Thessalonias 1: 8-9)
  • Grendel, a being created by God, was banished to Hell
    •  regardless, he would never be/feel whole

Separated from grace. That was wrack and ruin

•  Notes:
  • Separation from grace also occurs in the world view of Norse Mythology: Yggdrasil Tree of Life
    • Hel is a place of suffering-dead wander (do not get into AAsgard, home to the gods)

To Hrothgar, ravaging his brave heart.

Wise men in secret counsel considered

What brave men might best do

To turn back terror. They offered sacrifices

At heathen shrines, prayed that some soul-slayer,

• Note
  • Reminiscent of the Golden Calf worshiped by Hebrews

Some demon might ease their dark distress.

Their hope was dire—they prayed to hell

Instead of heaven. They know no God,

No Great Shaper, no Judge of Deeds,

They laid praise at the mouth of hell,

Sang no songs to the greatest Lord,

Asked no favors of the Glory-giver.

• Notes:
  • God ignores their prayers because they are praying to false gods (not to Him)
    • The actions of the people are sinful because it directly violates the First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Woe to those who in terrible affliction

Must offer their souls to the flame’s embrace;

• Note:
  • Traditional perception of Hell in which the dammed burn in an eternal fire

Well to those who on death’s day

Can seek their Lord’s protecting power,

Wrapped in the welcome of his embrace.

• Notes:
  • The last five lines seem like a reflection, the Anonymous poet of this epic is using this moment in the story as a lesson to pass down to later generations
    • A pause to caution and remind listeners of the consequences of worshiping false gods and the benefits or worshiping God

So Hrothgar brooded, Healfdene’s son,

On seething sorrow. The wise king

Could not stop that killing, ward off woe.

That strife was too strong, that feud too fierce—

That hall was home to the grimmest of night-woes.

• Note:
  • The end of this scene emphasizes dire and hopeless situation of the Danes and their need for a savior. The genre of hero will be fully introduced when Beowulf arrives determined to defeat Grendel.

Works Cited